1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for and a method of processing data to generate bit sequence data, for use in the transmission of a serial digital video signal based on bit sequence data having a bit rate according to predetermined standards.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the art of video signal processing, efforts have positively been made to employ digital video signals for the purpose of transmitting a variety of video information and achieving a high quality level of reproduced images. There has already been proposed a high-definition television (HDTV) system for handing digital video signals based on digital data representative of video signal information. According to the HDTV system, a digital video signal (hereinafter referred to as “HD signal”) is generated as a word sequence data according to a predetermined data format. HD signals available for the HDTV system include digital video signals in the YCbCr format and digital video signals in the RGB format. In the YCbCr format, Y represents a luma signal component and Cb and Cr chroma signal components. In the RGB format, R, G, B represent red, green, and blue primary signal components.
For transmitting an HD signal over a signal transmission path in the form of an optical signal transmission cable such as a coaxial cable or an optical fiber, for example, the HD signal should desirably be converted from word sequence data into bit sequence data (serial digital video signal) for transmission because the serial video signal transmission allows the signal transmission path to be simplified. For the serial transmission of HD signals, standards have been established by SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers). HD signals are transmitted according to HD SDI (High-Definition Serial Digital Interface) standardized in the SMPTE 292M standard established by SMPTE (see SMPTE STANDARD for Television and Digital Cinema SMPTE 425M-200x).
For the transmission according to HD SDI, it has been specified by the standards that a serial digital video signal based on bit sequence data transmitted over a signal transmission path in the form of an optical signal transmission cable such as a coaxial cable or an optical fiber have a data rate (a bit rate) of 1.485 Gb/s or 1.485/1.001 Gb/s (according to the present invention, both bit rates will be referred to as 1.485 Gb/s). In other words, a serial digital video signal to be transmitted according to HD SDI (hereinafter referred to as “HD-SDI signal”) has a bit rate of 1.485 Gb/s.